Vol. 27 



No. 9 



* 



BULLETIN 



OF THE 



TORREY BOTANICAL CLUB 



SEPTEMBER 1900 



The Classification of the Fleshy Pezizineae with Reference to the 



Structural Characters illustrating the Bases of their 



Division into Families* 



By Elias J. Durand 

 (With Plates 27-32) 



I. Historical 



The classification of plants may be said to have passed through 

 a course of development. In the early days, when the number of 

 known species was small, they were included in comparatively few 

 genera, although in many cases they were widely diversified in 

 characters. As time went on and the number of described species 

 increased, the limits of the genera were expanded until they in- 

 cluded an exceedingly heterogeneous mass of forms. But as 



botanists turned their attention more and more to the arrangement 

 of forms there became manifest the tendency to break up these 

 heterogeneous groups into a number of smaller divisions. These 

 large genera, as originally constituted are, in general, substantially 

 equivalent to the ordinal and family groups of modern writers. 



This mode of development is well illustrated in each of the 

 great groups of the Ascomycetes. The genus Sphacria, as under- 

 stood by the earlier writers had practically the same limits as the 

 order Pyrenomycetes of the modern systematists. In the course 

 of time this genus was broken up into numerous genera which by 

 later writers are included in several families. 



This paper was prepared under the direction of Professor George F. Atkinson 

 whose kindness and assistance the writer wishes here to acknowledge. a 



[Issued Sept. 29, 1900.] 4(53 x* I 



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